You Know OF Jesus But Do Know Jesus?

Luke 12:54-59 — We have the greatest scientific knowledge in history at this moment in time. We have electronic gadgetry that we take for granted now that was unthinkable just a few short years ago. Cell phones on which you can watch television and send text messages were unthinkable a decade ago. Smart phones are just a part of life now. We can send pictures from satellites orbiting Saturn. We can control land rovers on Mars via remote control signals. We get upset if the restaurant we go to does not have wireless internet while a decade ago we would not even have thought of it. Man has accomplished great things in this day and age.

As Jesus was saying in this passage, for example, man had acquired great knowledge of farming even as of 2,000 years ago. That knowledge is still with us today and has been greatly enhanced. We know how to interpret the signs of the weather and the seasons as to when to plant. We know what will grow in what soil. We understand how to interpret the world around us in so many ways, yet, we do not understand Jesus Christ and the coming of His kingdom.

Jesus says that we are like a perdson who knows that he has wronged another person and is under threat of being taken to court for it but we refuse to admit our crime. He says that we are like such a person who refuses to admit the crime even all the way to prison and we are force to pay the penalty for our crime. Even though we have great knowledge we are so stubborn when it comes to spiritual matters.

We all know that Jesus existed, but many of us refuse to see Him as the Son of God. We go to great trouble to discount His miracles as the church making Him to be more than He really was. Not one person in the world will say Jesus did not exist. It is commonly accepted by man that Jesus in fact did walk the earth. Yet, we say He was simply an anti-establishment rebel not a miracle worker. We say He was a Ghandi-esque non-violent protestor against Israel’s oppressors. Some say He was a radical rabbi trying to alter the course of Judaism. Yet we ignore the facts. As CS Lewis once said, “Jesus was either a lunatic, liar, or Lord.” Jesus frequently referred to He and His Father in heaven as being one and the same. Jesus frequently forgave people of their sins. Jesus performed many miracles in his three-year public ministry. If this was all a lie, something made up by the church, why would people die rather renounce Jesus. Why would people willingly give their life for a lie? It is commonly accepted that all of the New Testament books were written within the first 100 years after Jesus’ death, and, specifically, the gospels were written within the first 60-80 years. During this time, many of the eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry were still alive. If the miracles were not true events, if the claims of deity were not actually said, don’t you think there would have been a great uproar from these witnesses and the New Testament would not have survived intact.

What if in our great knowledge that we have failed to see and understand the simplest facts. Jesus was not just a great man. What if we missed it in our attempts to rationalize away God that rationalizing Him away does not make Him not exist. What if in the growth of our logic and rationality that we must one basic truth on which the universe is built. What if Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father (the three in one trinity of God) have existed eternally and pre-dated the creation of the universe. What if in our grand knowledge we find out that God was responsible for the big bang. What if there really is an end to the universe as we know and Jesus is the judge as Scripture claims. What if there really is an afterlife and this existence we have here is just a miniscule blip in time compared to the eternity of our afterlife. What if there really is only one way to the Father in eternity. Generally, all men agree because of the way God wired us when he made us that there is an afterlife. Jesus says He is the only way to get there.

I can give you the facts about Jesus. I can demonstrate the beauty and logic of Christian theology. I can demonstrate to you that people throughout the last 2,000 years have been willing to give their lives for their love of Jesus Christ. I can show you that it has to do with Holy Spirit life change. I can show you that radical political activists typically do not have impact for more than the generation in which they live but Jesus’ legacy remains to this day for a reason. I can get you comfortable with Jesus as all of the things that He claims to be through logic and reason. However, I cannot get you to make Him your Savior unless you have faith that He is the Son of God who died for you personally on the cross and then arose from the dead for you personally to demonstrate to you that your sins have been conquered. That last mile is where you have to have faith.

There is a world out there that although the evidence of Jesus being who He says He is that continues to reject Him, dismiss Him, or just ignores Him. That is where we come in. We are in a long line of 2,000 years worth of believers who have been changed from the inside out by Jesus Christ. We have have been convinced by the Holy Spirit that Jesus is for real King of Kings. He is our Savior. The Holy Spirit chooses to us to convince others. We must present the evidence of who Jesus is. We must present the evidence of our own changed lives. We must get people to the point that they do what needs to be done based on the evidence, make that last jump, the leap of faith. That understanding and acceptance of the overwhelming evidence of Jesus Christ as the Son of God and let it wash over them as never before and they see, finally see, Jesus as they have never seen Him before.

That my friend is the greatest advance in human history. Greater than all the technology we create. The acceptance of Jesus Christ as your Savior assures your place in a very long eternity with God. What an advance that is! You know of Jesus, but have you gotten to know Him as Your Savior?